


The Baker

by imaginethomashardy (AndABottleOfRum)



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 23:11:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18376001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndABottleOfRum/pseuds/imaginethomashardy
Summary: Lorelle Bailey finds herself in an alley on dark, rainy night.





	The Baker

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 06/10/15 on imaginethomashardy.tumblr

My name is Lorelle Bailey.

I grew up with the Shelby children. We’re not related by blood or marriage. According to Aunt Polly, she found me wandering the streets in a dress with a piece of paper tied around my wrist. Only my name and date of birth was on it. No questions were asked.

I watched the boys go from playing in the streets to running them. Tommy did it so well, even after the war. Arthur and Tommy came back changed men, tortured men. And John, he went and got married and had four kids.

That was then.

I tagged along with Tommy as he traveled to Camden town. I had planned to wander until he was finished with his “meeting” but he refused to let me out of his sight. We entered the bakery, went through the motions of getting access to the back and Thomas Shelby met the man of the hour.

Alfie Solomons talked a great deal. He played the game well. He wasn’t quite right in the head though. And I thought Arthur was bad.

He looked at me in a way but paid me no mind other than that. I trailed a ways behind them. This wasn’t a woman’s place as it was and the men here weren’t exactly law abiding.

“Make sure to leave the daughter at home next time, yeah?” I heard Solomons say.

“I’m not his daughter.” I stated without thinking.

Thomas saved me then.

“She’s family.”

A few weeks later, Id’d managed to go down to Camden town for a day. Tommy had told me not to but I didn’t listen. A lady shouldn’t be walking the streets by herself either but well, I’m just a regular daredevil these days, ain’t I? The Shelbys will have my head and Aunt Polly will skin me alive.

I went down an alley way to avoid the crowded streets. I looked up and I could see the faint outline of a group of men at the exit. I went to turn around but there were two more at the entrance.

I hadn’t brought my razors with me, I didn’t think I’d need them. I heard the sound of a blade first. Then the whistling started. How the fuck was I going to survive this? In a fucking dress too. I wasn’t going to be the next dead body of Camden, no way in bloody hell.

I kept on walking. One of them said something and came at me. He was the first to go down with a punch. Thank God, I learned how to fight from the boys. I dodged the next one and the idiot ran into the brick wall. I saw the glint of a blade. I grabbed his wrist and squeezed. He dropped the blade as he grunted. I heard the other two running towards me. The man landed a punch and busted my lip. I managed to get the blade and got him in the side.

One of the other guys got close enough that he grabbed me from behind putting his blade to my neck. The smell of liquor strong on him.

“Just who the fuck are you?”

I said nothing as I ducked out of his hold and dug the blade into his neck. I saw a flash of red before it started to rain. The fight must have made alot of noise because there was a crowd forming. There were shouts but they were muffled. A shadow stood next to me and I turned to see who it was.

Alfie Solomons looked at the heap of bodies on the alley ground.

“You must be a Shelby, girl.”, he said as he turned to me.

The blade I held dropped to the ground. I think my body wanted to join it to now that I didn’t need that fighting spirit.

The next thing I know, a thick coat was draped over my shoulders along with an arm.

Alfie ushers me into a room toward the back of the bakery. He throws a few logs into the fireplace and get them lit.

He hung up his coat, dipped his hat in my direction and left me in the room, alone.

I stood in front of the fire place when an awful sound tore through the room.

My knees gave out before I realized that the noise came from me, a girl who had finally come to realize how close to dying she had come. I had escaped two possible outcomes with just a busted lip.

I put my forehead to the floor. My sobs had become quiet by the time Alfie came back.

“You look like quite the mess.”

A chair was dragged next to me and he sat down in it.

“What are you doing in Camden?”

“Do I look like I’m in the business of misery?”

Silence.

I looked up at him, all imposing stature even as he sits. His gold rings glinted in the firelight. A glass of rum in one hand, the other on the armrest.

“Think about messing with some of the boys?”

“I’m not the type and I sure as hell wouldn’t be here if I was.”

The glass appeared next to my face.

“I don’t drink.”

“A Shelby that doesn’t drink.”

“I’m not a Shelby. I just grew up in the same house.”

“What’s your name then?”

“Lorelle Bailey.”

“Well, Miss Bailey, you know how to use a blade.”

I think I glared at him or at least tried to.

“It looks like you’ll be staying here for tonight. No use in going back out there.”

“Looks just that way, Mister Solomons.”

“You’ll catch something with those clothes.”

“I’d rather catch pneumonia than strip in front of a man I know nothing about.”

“Suit yourself.”


End file.
